Former ISU player charged in bar brawl

Friday

An Ames man and former Iowa State University football player was arrested Thursday and accused of assaulting another man with a glass bottle.

An Ames man and former Iowa State University football player was arrested Thursday and accused of assaulting another man with a glass bottle.

Wallace Jerome Franklin, 25, of 702 Ash Ave., was arrested after being found in a locked storage room in the basement of Cy’s Roost, a Welch Avenue bar, following the incident.

Police said that at around 12:10 a.m. Thursday, they arrived at Paddy’s Irish Pub, at 124 Welch Ave., following a report of a fight in progress. When they arrived, they found the victim bleeding from deep cuts to the left side of his neck, his left shoulder and his right thumb.

Witnesses said a man wearing red pants and no shirt repeatedly struck the victim with a glass bottle in the neck and arm, causing the injuries. Another witness said they knew the suspect and identified him as Franklin.

Franklin later was found in the Cy’s Roost storage room wearing red pants and no shirt. He had a bloody nose and said he’d been jumped and punched in the nose.

A witness identified Franklin as the one who’d struck the victim.

Franklin was charged with willful injury, a class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Franklin was an ISU football wide receiver until he began to have frequent run-ins with the law. He was dismissed from the team in 2009.

Luke Jennett can bereached at (515) 663-6919 or ljennett@amestrib.com.

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